


One Of Ours.

by imaginationisrainbowcoloured



Series: Newsies Reincarnation [1]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Brother-Sister Relationships, Brotherly Love, Cute, Cute Ending, Cutesy, Developing Relationship, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, Fun, High School, Jack being Jack, Jewish Jacobs Family, Lack of Communication, Middle School, Minor Angst, Misunderstandings, Modern Era, Multi, Past Relationship(s), Pining David Jacobs, Reincarnation, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27226627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginationisrainbowcoloured/pseuds/imaginationisrainbowcoloured
Summary: It was an unfortunate series of events that moved the Jacobs family from Ohio to New York, but it came with a pay rise for Mayer, a new job for Esther, and a new school for their three children. All three had been struggling at their previous school, bullied for being Jewish, and Esther had high hopes that they would get on better in a state with many more Jewish people around.Davey and Sarah were fifteen, Les was twelve and unknown to their parents, they were all relieved to be moving to New York- or, back to New York, considering they all had memories of living there before. Sarah called it her past life, Davey just called them memories, without giving it a name that had such huge connotations as Sarah’s did. Les didn’t call it anything, because he was twelve and not yet fully aware of the fact that it set them apart from everyone else.“It’s called ‘The World’,” Esther was explaining to Sarah as Davey came down the stairs. He still wasn’t used to having a house with two floors, or a room to himself, despite it having been nearly a week since they had moved in.
Relationships: (background), Crutchie & Les Jacobs, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins
Series: Newsies Reincarnation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986400
Comments: 13
Kudos: 79





	One Of Ours.

It was an unfortunate series of events that moved the Jacobs family from Ohio to New York, but it came with a pay rise for Mayer, a new job for Esther, and a new school for their three children. All three had been struggling at their previous school, bullied for being Jewish, and Esther had high hopes that they would get on better in a state with many more Jewish people around. 

  
Davey and Sarah were fifteen, Les was twelve and unknown to their parents, they were all relieved to be moving to New York- or, back to New York, considering they all had memories of living there before. Sarah called it her past life, Davey just called them memories, without giving it a name that had such huge connotations as Sarah’s did. Les didn’t call it anything, because he was twelve and not yet fully aware of the fact that it set them apart from everyone else.

  
“It’s called ‘The World’,” Esther was explaining to Sarah as Davey came down the stairs. He still wasn’t used to having a house with two floors, or a room to himself, despite it having been nearly a week since they had moved in. 

  
“It’s run by a man named Joseph Pulitzer, a descendent of the Pulitzer Prize man- morning David.”

  
“Good morning, mama,” he replied, sitting next to Sarah.

  
“I was just telling Sarah about your new high school. It’ll be good to know some things before you get there, won’t it?”

  
Davey mustered up a smile and nodded, biting into his toast despite the nerves churning in his stomach that threatened to send anything he ate back up. Sarah squeezed his arm under the table, smiling at him hopefully. He knew what she was thinking- in the memories the three of them shared Pulitzer had also been named Joseph, and Sarah had been utterly in love with his daughter. If they weren’t the only ones, maybe Katherine went to their high school as well.

  
Les borderline tumbled down the stairs and dropped into the chair on Sarah’s other side, “Good morning, mama!” he chirped cheerfully, taking the toast she set in front of him and devouring it.

  
“You seem excited.” Esther commented, looking relieved- even if the twins were nervous, she knew they would have each other, Les on the other hand was only in middle school, and would be alone surrounded by people he didn’t know.

  
“I am!” Les replied, around a mouthful of toast that made Davey grimace, “I can’t wait to meet my friends!”

  
Esther laughed, ruffling his hair, the statement meant nothing to her, just the ramblings of her excited son. Davey and Sarah knew that he was convinced that they would meet the people they had known before- it had been their topic of discussion last night- and neither of them had the heart to point out to their brother that they might be the only three that remembered. 

  
Breakfast was finished, and Esther hurried the three of them out of the house, dropping kisses on cheeks and wishing them a good first day as she walked in the opposite direction to them. Together, they watched her hurry off- she had started working at a local bakery partway through their first week and was used to it by now. As she got out of sight, they turned as one and began walking towards the school.

  
Their father had made them walk to the gates and back multiple times over the previous few days, so they knew where they were going.

  
“Davey!” Les gasped, tugging on his sleeve like he did in the memories, the memories where he was much younger, “It’s the lodging house!”

  
And it was. The building had barely changed, save for some wear and tear and the sign that now read ‘Kloppman’s home for boys’ instead of ‘Duane Street Lodging House.’ As if on cue, a group of boys tumbled out of the door and began walking in the same direction they had been.

  
Les stood on his tiptoes, glancing between all the boys, trying to see anyone he recognised. Davey and Sarah exchanged a slightly horrified glance- it had been fine thinking about meeting the other people they remembered in abstract, but the sudden idea that it could be very real wasn’t something that either of them had really been prepared for.

  
“Les,” Sarah said, pulling him back from where he seemed to be about to run into the fray, “you have to be careful. They might not remember.”

  
His little face took on a much sombre look, “I know. I’m not supposed to know their names unless they say something first.”

  
She nodded and squeezed his hand, “If you were friends last time, I’m sure you’ll get along this time too.”

  
He grinned up at her and nodded, with that the three of them began to walk again, no more words exchanged until they had left Les at the gates of the middle school, gaining a promise from him to wait for them and not walk home on his own.

  
“Do you really think that?” Davey asked quietly, “That if we were friends last time, we’ll be friends this time?”

  
“Why wouldn’t we be?”

  
“We only became friends with them last time because we had the same job. They wouldn’t have cared about me if I hadn’t joined the newsboys.”

  
Sarah hugged him, “You’re so pessimistic. Try and look on the bright side, ok?”

  
He sighed, “Yeah, ok.”

  
They went to the school office, following helpful signs, to collect their schedules- and apparently, someone who would show them to first period if nothing else.  
The secretary introduced herself as ‘Hannah, you don’t need to call me miss anything’ and handed them their schedules with a smile and a basic explanation of the shape of the school.

  
“It used to be the headquarters for ‘The World’ newspaper, so the main body was set out like offices, but there was some reworking before the school was opened, so there’s more classrooms- and obviously the newer parts were built to be a school.”

  
Davey didn’t say anything, so Sarah took over the polite smiling and responses until they were told to sit in the waiting room and wait for the people who would be showing them around this morning.

  
“What’s up with you?” she asked quietly, pretending to be comparing their schedules, “You’re never like this.”

  
“I know her,” Davey replied, the same volume, “She was one of Pulitzer’s… I don’t know, secretaries?” 

  
“Weird.”

  
“Do you think…”

  
“No. No way, she didn’t seem to recognise you.”

  
“Maybe she’s had practice.”

  
“If she’s here, who else- “

  
Sarah was cut off by two people entering the office kind of loudly,

  
“Hi Hannah!” the boy called, leaning on her desk and grinning brilliantly, “You are looking radiant as always.”

  
“Romeo.” The twins whispered in unison, thankfully not loud enough for either him, or his friend to here.

  
“Sarah! David!” Hannah called, “Come here, please.”

  
They did, smiling at Romeo, and the girl who turned out to be Hotshot, while trying not to let the recognition show through. Neither of them seemed at all surprised to see the two of them, or as if they recognised them and Davey wasn’t quite sure if that was a relief or not.

  
“Alright.” Hannah clapped her hands, “Sarah, this is Romeo, he’s gonna stick with you for the morning and hand you over to Mike for the afternoon. David, this is Niamh- “

  
“Hotshot.” Niamh interjected,

  
“-Hotshot, yes, and she will be with you for first period, then she’ll hand you over to Katherine for the afternoon. Ok?”

  
They both nodded their understanding and went to stand with their assigned partner, for lack of a better word. Sarah gave her brother an encouraging smile, one that said he could do this, even if he was almost completely convinced, he couldn’t. 

  
They split up almost immediately, with Romeo leading Sarah down one corridor soon after the exited the office, and Hotshot continuing straight on. She didn’t say much, pointing out things Davey would want to remember as they passed, and glancing back every so often to check that he was still there, which was fine by Davey as he had never been particularly good at small talk, and it gave him time to think.

  
He hadn’t got many memories of Hotshot, just that she had been Spot’s second and he had sometimes had to pass messages through her in order to speak to Spot. She hadn’t been particularly talkative last time either, from what he vaguely remembered, but then none of Brooklyn had- she still had the Brooklyn accent, even at a school in Manhattan.  
“This is first period,” she said, gesturing at a door that was marked ‘Bi3’ “Biology.” She pushed the door open and walked in, obviously expecting Davey to follow. The teacher who turned and smiled at them wasn’t at all recognisable to Davey, which he found slightly relieving, and she welcomed him to the class, before directing him to sit next to Hotshot at the back- the only spare seat.

  
*

  
A few corridors over, Sarah was behind Romeo in math. Before they had gone in, he had warned her that the teacher wasn’t particularly nice and that they called him ‘Snyder the Spider’ behind his back. The words had sent a chill up her spine- her memories of the newsies explaining the Refuge to her and her parents were harsh, sharp, and awful. The memories of even one of the littles lifting up his shirt to reveal an ugly scar were too embedded in her head to ever forget.

  
“Miss Jacobs, I assume?” Snyder had said as they entered, smiling at her in a way that made her realise that no matter what Romeo or Hotshot or Hannah remembered, Snyder had all his previous memories and he had connected her to Davey immediately. 

  
“Yes sir.” She replied brightly, “Where would you like me to sit.”

  
He gestured at the empty seat behind Romeo, who was sitting next to another one she recognised, even if she couldn’t call his name to mind- both of them were looking at her worriedly, a warning not to incite his anger. She sat down and pulled out her notebook and pencil case, wondering if anyone was going to sit next to her, or if she was destined to sit alone for the rest of the year.

  
“Alright,” Snyder said, “Quadratics.”

  
As if on cue, the door was flung open and someone slid in neatly- a baseball cap sat backwards on top of red hair, bright enough that she knew immediately it was Albert.

  
“DaSilva.” Snyder snapped. “That’s the second time this week. Detention.”

  
“Yes, sir.” Albert replied, grinning cheekily, and making his way across the room to flop into the seat next to Sarah, “Morning Romeo, Elmer, new girl.”

  
Elmer- that was his name.

  
“Hi,” she said, “I’m Sarah Jacobs.”

  
“Albert DaSilva.” He replied and shook her hand politely. At the front of the classroom, Snyder was writing questions on the board. “You met Romeo and Elmer?”

  
“Romeo’s showing me around this morning.”

  
“Damn, be prepared to get lost.”

  
“Shut up.” Romeo replied, but he was laughing, “I’m not that bad.”

  
“I’m Elmer,” Elmer said turning around. “Ignore these two idiots, honestly, and don’t worry about math too much, we have another teacher more often than we have the Spider, so she actually teaches us.”

  
That was actually something of a relief, and she thanked him for the information, at which he nodded, and turned back around before Snyder did- she was remembering Jack saying that you didn’t give Snyder a chance to yell at you, you did everything right before he could tell you.

  
The class went silent as Snyder turned around, instructed them to do the twenty questions he had written up and left. The silence remained for a good five minutes and then the classroom almost erupted into noise.

  
Sarah sat back, copied down the questions, and wondered if the Katherine that would be showing Davey around would be her Katherine.

  
*

  
As it turned out, it was in fact Sarah’s Katherine that Hotshot passed Davey off to after Biology- he barely held in the urge to shout her name, hug her, or do something else that would scare her off. Her fiery hair stood out from where she was leaning against the white walls, a pink folder hugged to her chest with one arm, while she checked her phone.   
She smiled up at the two of them when Hotshot called out her name, and moved towards them. She was taller than Davey remembered, almost as tall as him, but aside from that she seemed exactly the same. He had known her the best out of the few people had seen so far, and he found that it actually ached not to be able to reach out, brush her hair off her shoulder, hug her, lean into her and just resume the comfortable affection that they had had last time.

  
“English?”

  
“Huh?”

  
“I said, are you ready for English?” she repeated, smiling gently, and he almost thought she was going to reach out and put a hand on his shoulder. She didn’t, and he nodded, trying not to show his disappointment, and wondering if he could warn Sarah about how it felt.

  
Like Hotshot, Kath pointed out a few things he should remember- the lockers, the nurse’s office- and unlike Hotshot, she kept up a steady stream of conversation that Davey wasn’t really expected to contribute to, only interrupted by people greeting her, where she would pause and introduce them to Davey. By the time they reached English, Davey had been told more names than he thought he could ever really remember, and maybe he was right because they all flew out of his head immediately when he was faced with the English teacher.  
  
Denton.

  
The English teacher was Bryan Denton, and he could have laughed at that if it wouldn’t have got him several questioning glances.

  
“David Jacobs?” Denton asked brightly, moving towards him to shake his hand firmly, “It’s a pleasure to have you in this class, please- take a seat.”

  
Slightly tongue tied and reminded of the unfortunate crush he remembered having on Denton, Davey followed Katherine and sat down next to her, remembering to ask if the seat was empty before he collapsed into it.

  
“Alright,” Denton said, “I just need to go grab some photocopies, so talk amongst yourselves for a bit.”  
  
Katherine smiled at him and turned around to talk to someone behind them, who turned out to be Spot, much to Davey’s surprise- they were introduced, and then Spot pulled Katherine into a conversation that seemed to need a lot of background knowledge to follow, so Davey pulled out his phone instead.  
  
 _ **To Sarah:** I’ve found Katherine and Spot, as well as Hotshot._  
  
 _ **From Sarah:** I’ve found Romeo, Elmer, Albert, Specs and Jack._  
  
He stared down at his phone, willing the words to make sense. She had found Jack- his Jack.

  
_**From Sarah:** I think Romeo and Specs are dating and I know Albert and Elmer are dating because they started making out as soon as they saw each other._  
  
They were both avoiding the obvious topic, but it was nice to know that they were surrounded by people they had known.  
  
 ** _To Sarah: I’m pretty sure they were dating last time as well, subtlety had never been Albert’s strong point._**  
  
He got a laughing emoji in response, and didn’t have time to send anything else as Denton re-entered the room, waving a load of paper triumphantly,   
  
“I have the photocopies.”  
  
The lesson began there, they were looking at The Great Gatsby, which Davey had covered at his old school only a few years prior, so he felt comfortable enough to relax slightly. Or relax as much as he could with Spot’s eyes boring holes into the back of his head. The one time he glanced around, Spot made direct eye contact and held it until he turned back.  
  
Spot wasn’t any less terrifying in the twenty first century it seemed.   
  
*  
  
Katherine seemed to be expecting Davey to eat lunch with her and her group and based on the interactions she had had with people that Davey recognised, he was pretty certain that Sarah would be eating with her group as well. He went with her, stopped by the small greetings from people that he had gotten used to by walking around with her, and some of them even remembered him, remembered his name and were actually interested in how his day had gone so far.  
  
They went through the lunch room, Katherine pausing at one table to talk to some people- two of whom Davey recognised as Bill and Darcy- but kept going after she had gotten the information she wanted, past all the other tables and outside and towards a tree. A tree that already had a large gathering of people under it- including Sarah who jumped to her feet as soon as she saw him and pulled him towards where she was sitting. Where she was sitting, next to Jack.  
  
“Hey,” Jack greeted as Sarah pulled him down onto the grass, “You must be Davey, Sarah said you were somewhere around here.”  
  
The utter lack of recognition in Jack’s friendly tone went like an arrow straight to Davey’s heart, and he somehow found it in himself to smile politely and ask who Jack was.  
  
“I’m Jack.” Jack told him, “Jack Kelly, and I live at Kloppman’s with most of these idiots.”  
  
“We walked past that on our way this morning,” Davey said, desperately trying to keep the conversation as long as possible.  
  
“Yeah, Sarah said, she said you’ve got a younger brother too?”  
  
“Uh, yeah- Les, he’s twelve and at the middle school.”  
  
“Yeah, my brother Crutchie’s there too, he’s thirteen, though.”  
  
Davey smiled, both at the fact that Jack still considered Crutchie his brother, and at the fact that Les would be able to make at least one friend, even if nobody outside of the three of them remembered the previous century.  
  
“Speaking of Les,” he said, and pulled out his phone to discover that Les was ahead of him and had already texted.  
  
 _ **From Les:** im fine, ive made friends, im being shown around_  
  
 _ **From Les:** ALSO ULL NEVER GUESS WHO I MET_  
  
 _ **To Les:** Was it Crutchie?_  
  
 _ **From Les:** YESS!!!_  
  
 _ **From Les:** and he remembers_  
  
Davey paused staring at Les’ final text, a text that in three short words had brought something that might have been hope to sit in Davey’s chest.  
  
“Sarah?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Has Les texted you?”  
  
“Yeah, he said he made friends with Jack’s brother.”  
  
They both looked up at each other, and he could see that Les had in fact imparted the important piece of information to Sarah as well. She raised her eyebrows. Davey went back to his conversation with Jack.   
  
Looking around, he could see most of the previous newsies that had been their age in the little group under the tree. Race and Spot were next to each other, arguing over something that he couldn’t quite hear, Sarah was sat with Katherine, Smalls, Sniper, and the twins- Mike and Ike- on the other side of Jack was Buttons, Tommy Boy, Henry, Blink and Mush, Hotshot was next to Spot, but not involved in the argument, instead talking to Albert, Elmer, Romeo, Specs, and Finch. It was just as chaotic as he remembered the lodging house being and it was oddly perfect for him, someone who hated loud noises and crowds.  
  
*  
  
They picked Les up at the gates of the middle school, along with Jack and Race who had accompanied them to grab Crutchie- the rest of the group, Jack explained, just left when they were let out and they all reconvened at Kloppman’s, otherwise they’d be waiting on the school grounds for ages and it was sometimes hard to know when they had everyone.  
  
Crutchie beamed at the four of them as they approached and was quick to introduce everyone who didn’t already know each other.  
  
“You guys wanna come back to Kloppman’s with us?” Jack offered, one arm slung over Crutchie’s shoulders, “We generally do homework and stuff together.”  
  
Les wanted to say yes, it was obvious in his face, but… “Mama asked us to have dinner going when she got home.” Sarah pointed out gently, “Maybe another time.”  
  
Les and Crutchie looked sorely disappointed by that, and maybe Davey was flattering himself, but he thought Jack looked a little disappointed too.   
  
They said their goodbyes, Les hugged everyone because he was just like that, the three Jacobs headed back to their little house, and the other three headed to their home. Jack would never have admitted it to anyone, but he did glance back multiple times until they were out of sight, hoping that they might change their minds.  
  
The Jacobs weren’t aware of Jack’s glances, instead too focused on getting back to their house where they would be free to discuss the weirdness that had gone down on their first day.  
  
Sarah locked the door and dropped her bag, rounding on Les, “You’re certain? You’re certain that Crutchie remembers?”  
  
Les nodded frantically, “he brought up an inside joke from before and I finished it and we both just knew!”  
  
The twins exchanged a glance, both hoping that the other would know what to do about the situation, and- when no solution came- the three of them just fell about laughing. There wasn’t really anything else to do in such a situation, it wasn’t like there was a handbook entitled ‘What to do when your friends don’t remember their past lives’ or anything, no matter how much Davey thought it would help.  
  
“Holy shit.” Sarah finally breathed out, “This is insane.”  
  
“Yep.”  
  
“Yep.”  
  
They looked at each other and started laughing again.  
  
*  
  
Back at the lodging house- which was still how most of them thought of it, despite the fact that it hadn’t been called that in over a century- Crutchie was sitting in the middle of a circle as he explained how Les also remembered, but he didn’t think that the twins remembered because Les hadn’t said anything, and he hadn’t seen any recognition in their eyes.  
  
Other people mumbled their agreements at that, they hadn’t seen any recognition from the Jacobs either.  
  
“I don’t know,” Katherine argued, “I’m pretty sure Davey at least recognised me from the way he kind of stared when Hotshot introduced me.”  
  
“Maybe he was just doing that ‘cos he thinks your hot.” Spot offered from Race’s bunk, where he was currently curled up with Race.  
  
“Funny.”   
  
“Just saying.”  
  
“Well don’t.” Jack muttered, ignoring the amused looks that gained from most of the older members.  
  
Spot shrugged in response, “Kloppman’s gonna come and tell us off for not working soon.”  
  
There were a series of groans and objections from around the room, but people stood up and moved to their desks or onto their beds, depending on how they preferred to work, and by the time Kloppman walked in everyone was doing something appropriate- even if they were occasionally mentioning the three Jacobs’s siblings.  
  
“What’s this about then?” Kloppman asked gently, sitting down next to Jack on his bunk,   
  
“There’s some new kids,” he glanced up, “you remember Davey? Davey Jacobs?”  
  
Kloppman resisted the urge to ask how he could have forgotten with Jack drawing him every few days, and instead just nodded.  
  
“Him, and Sarah, his twin, and Les- you remember Les- they joined our schools today.”  
  
Kloppman raised an eyebrow, unphased. He had met too many people that he had known before to be surprised when another one showed up, in all honesty he was almost convinced that they were all gravitating towards New York in some way- call it fate, destiny, a horse- they would all be there eventually.  
  
“Bring them ‘round.” He said to Jack, patted his knee and eased himself up to check in on the littles, who were primarily looked after by Miss Medda these days, but it was good to keep up with them for when they moved up.  
  
“Yeah,” Jack sighed, watching him go. “It would probably help if they remembered.”  
  
*  
  
“Yeah,” Les sighed from where he was cutting carrots at the table, “I’m pretty sure they don’t remember, that was what Crutchie implied before you guys arrived.”  
  
Davey sighed, resigned, “I mean, I’d already worked that out, but…”  
  
“It kinda sucks?” Les finished,  
  
“Yeah, it kinda sucks.”  
  
Esther and Mayer arrived home at that point, thanked their children for starting dinner and the conversation about past lives, memories and people they knew that didn’t know them, had to be dropped in favour of more parent-friendly conversations like how was your first day at school? And did you make any friends? Which classes did you enjoy? Were the teachers nice? Did you find your way around alright?  
  
That became a sort of pattern for the rest of their week, they would walk to school, drop Les at the gates, continue walking to school where they might be joined by one of Kloppman’s boys or their extended group, split up for classes which they both all had with at least one of said extended group, regroup for lunch, under the tree, finish classes, walk to the middle school with at least Jack and sometimes a few others, collect Les and Crutchie, say goodbye to Jack and Crutchie, reject Jack’s invitation, walk home and start on whatever their mother had planned for dinner while complaining about how much they wished the others remembered.  
  
And it followed into the next week, and the week after, until Sarah finally remembered to ask their parents if they could go over to Jack’s after school with their friends.  
That broke the pattern more than they could have anticipated when Esther gave them the go-ahead that morning.   
  
They walked to school, dropped Les and weren’t joined by anyone but that was fine because they were going to hang out with them after school, they split for classes, regrouped at lunch, by mutual agreement didn’t tell anyone they had been allowed to go over to their house- Sarah’s idea, she thought it would be funny to just say yes to Jack’s invitation with indication that was going to happen- spilt up again for afternoon classes and walked to the middle school with Jack and Katherine.  
  
“Do you wanna come over?” Jack asked, “Get something done on your homework with friends?”  
  
It was pretty obvious he was now just asking to be polite, because he didn’t think that they were going to say yes, but he had made a habit of asking everyday.  
  
“Yeah.” Sarah said.  
  
“That’s fine, I- wait what?”  
  
“Yeah,” Sarah repeated, trying not to laugh, “we’d love to.”  
  
Jack blinked at the three of them stunned for a couple of seconds, before a smile broke out across his face. Davey thought it looked like the sun was coming out, and he was taken breathless by the happiness that Jack displayed and the memory of when he had truly been in love with him- he thought that he might be able to fall in love with Jack again if he was given the chance.  
  
“Let’s go!” Jack said, looking happier than a child in a candy store- as happy as a child in a candy store who had been told everything was free.  
  
The five of them turned towards the home and crossed the road, Jack thundering ahead to yell the good news into the bunk room. Davey, Sarah and Les entered to loud obnoxious cheers- the loudest of which came from Race, because he was just like that. There was some laughter when Race just kept going after everyone had stopped, and more when Spot pushed him off the bunk, but they made space for the three of them, offered them blankets and fluffy socks because the floor was always cold no matter how high they turned the heat up.  
  
Kloppman came in at the usual time glanced around the room and stopped his gaze on Davey, “Davey Jacobs?”  
  
Davey jumped up automatically, “Yes, sir.”  
  
Kloppman stared at him for a second and then broke out into one of his rare complete smiles, “Isn’t it good to see you again?” and wrapped Davey up in a hug, shook hands with Sarah and swung Les around like he had done before.  
  
Davey stood in a minor amount of shock, “What do you mean again?”  
  
“Don’t you remember? 1899? The strike?”  
  
“I mean, yeah but I didn’t realise you did.”  
  
“Wait,” Jack cut in, “You and Sarah? You remember too?”  
  
“Yeah, we thought only Crutchie remembered.”  
  
Jack laughed, “We thought only Les remembered.”  
  
The volume suddenly picked up with everyone asking questions over each other, but Davey found he could only look at Jack- and Sarah for a brief second when he saw her leaning in to kiss Katherine.  
  
“Hey Mouth!” Spot called, and the angry eyes Davey had been faced with in English for the past few weeks were gone, replaced with an odd gentleness. “Welcome back.”  
  
“It’s good to be back.”  
  
Jack lunged at him suddenly, and he found himself with an armful of Cowboy, “I missed you,” Jack whispered, loud enough for only Davey to hear, “I missed you so much.”  
I missed you didn’t seem to cover Davey’s feelings, but he said it back anyway, because how else could he express feeling like a part of him that was missing had been returned now that he was holding Jack in his arms? There was no other way.  
  
He glanced around the room, Les and Crutchie were on one bunk with some of the other pre-teens, Sarah and Katherine were curled up next to Smalls and Sniper and everyone else was in their own little groups. Spot was the only one still watching them.  
  
“It’s good to be back.”

**Author's Note:**

> this is like the start to my little series  
> imma add some more like how the rest of them ended up there yknow  
> any ideas for little one shots are welcome


End file.
